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Reading List: Assessing Sidney Crosby's performance in Sochi

As the men's Olympic hockey tournament heads towards the medal round, two of the most-talked about hockey players in Sochi have been Phil Kessel and Sidney Crosby. 

While both the USA and Canada posted records of 2-1-0-0 through the first three games of the tournament, Kessel is being praised for his performance in the preliminary round (four goals, three assists, 15 shots) and Crosby is being panned for failing to score a goal while registering two lone assists and only five shots.

Much has been written about Crosby's production (or lack thereof) as Canada awaits its quarterfinal opponent, with questions arising about suitable line mates and exactly how one goes about assessing his value to a team.

In a piece entitled 'Why is playing with Sidney Crosby so hard?', Bruce Arthur of the National Post points out that Crosby has already played with Chris Kunitz, Jeff Carter, Martin St. Louis, Patrice Bergeron and Jamie Benn in Sochi after lining up alongside six different forwards in Vancouver. One of those 2010 wingers was Rick Nash, who said this about playing with Crosby:

I think he’s a tough guy to keep up with. He’s so fast. The way he thinks about the game seems like it’s far beyond everyone else’s process. It’s the same thing in the last Olympics, keep shuffling around until you found something that fit.

Despite all that shuffling around in Vancouver, Crosby finished the tournament with four goals, the most important of which being the last.

While Chris Kunitz was brought to Sochi because of a preexisting chemistry with Crosby, Arthur argues Martin St. Louis - scratched against Finland - has been the "best Crosby winger" to date. Ultimately, and regardless of whether he starts to find the back of the net or not, Arthur believes "[Canada] can win gold without Crosby at his best; it would just be much, much harder."

Chris Johnston of Sportsnet argues that framing Crosby's lack of goal scoring as a problem "is a problem in itself," for "to even start measuring Crosby’s impact on this team by the number under the "G" column is to only see part of the picture."

Johnston points out Crosby hasn't been on the ice for a goal against in Sochi, qualifying the perceived lack of production by saying "the only thing more important than Crosby scoring in Sochi is that the best players on the other teams don’t score when he is on the ice." 

As Mike Babcock said after Sunday's win over Finland, "Everyone evaluates Sid on scoring and I evaluate Sid on winning." As such, Johnston firmly believes Crosby "would gladly go through a tournament like this with zero goals and zero assists to win a gold medal."

At the same time, the presence of Crosby on Team Canada opens up opportunities for others down the lineup, and, in Johnston's words, "if you are willing to lay it all on the line and let Toews and Drew Doughty bask in the glory while you are neutralizing the top opponents in the process, then you might just get another gold medal placed around your neck at the end of this unbelievable event."

Josh Yohe covers the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and, as such, watches Sidney Crosby more closely than most. While he states "I’ll be the first to admit that Crosby hasn't been his dominant self in these Olympics, that the lightning bolt speed, precision passes and otherworldly work along the boards haven’t been especially evident in Sochi," Yohe also believes Crosby simply can't be measured on stats alone, especially in an era where defense rules and scoring is at a premium at the international level.

Yohe adds "my ultimate suggestion for the restless Canadian faction of people expecting more from Crosby is to be patient," arguing "[Crosby] isn't a man of statistics. He’s a man of moments." Yohe quotes Mike Babcock as having said "the thing about Sid is that he seems to have a magic about him," and in his experience of watching Crosby over the years, Yohe says "you never know when magic will appear."

He wraps up by adding "before we dismiss mighty Canada, and before we dismiss its captain, we must realize that moments remain in this tournament, and [Canada] hasn't had his yet."

And finally, here's a good dose of perspective from hockey insider Bob McKenzie, who made a Monday evening appearance on TSN1050.

McKenzie also said "my own personal view, there has been too much angst over the lack of goals," qualifying Canada's overall performance by adding "the goaltending & the blueline has been good. I'd rather have those two areas set to start and then wait for the offense to come."

In short, regardless of who he plays with on any given night, Sidney Crosby provides Team Canada with a constant and lethal offensive threat (generating 12 scoring chances in three games, as tabulated by theScore's own Thomas Drance) while offering a measure of defensive responsibility, a willingness to do what it takes to win and the ability to rise to the occasion in memorable and convincing fashion.

Whether or not he can lead Canada to a second straight gold medal is yet to be determined, but one thing is certain: Sidney Crosby has already shown us more than enough to prove he's one of the very best, and will do all he can to help his team win in Sochi.

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